Pervez Musharraf Arrested After Returning To Pakistan For Elections

Pakistan’s former military leader Pervez Musharraf, was placed under arrest on Friday after the country’s judiciary found him accountable for his actions during his nine years in power.

The former military ruler, who fled the courtroom yesterday, was escorted back into central Islamabad, from his fortified villa, where a magistrate placed him under arrest. He was freed for a few hours and then again brought in to the police custody up to his next court appearance.

Before the arrest of the former ruler, there were some high voltage events that took place. Pervez Musharraf did not give himself into the custody of police after his bail was rejected by the judge, and the orders of arrest were given. When he came out of the court room, a special team of commandos escorted him and took him to his heavily secured Islamabad villa in a sports utility vehicle.

In the court house, lawyers said that it was obvious by actions of Pervez Musharraf that he is trying to escape arrest and his team of security personnel did not allow Islamabad Police to arrest him. However, those supporting Musharraf said that this was not the case, and he was ready to surrender if Police wanted to arrest him.

This comes as an absolute humiliation to him as he had absolute power and ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008. However, there are now clouds of doubt as to why he returned to Pakistan after four years of exile. When Musharraf returned to Pakistan after four years, a protestor hurled a shoe on him as a sign of his anger. Musharraf, after coming back home, has mostly stayed in his villa, which is guarded by security personnel to defend him from potential Taliban attack.

The political party of Musharraf, the All Pakistan Muslim League, could not rise and is struggling to gain a substantial ground in Pakistani politics. Musharraf was not caught in the eye of media until he returned to Pakistan followed by recent issues. Even the friends he had in the Army are considering him as a liability now.

“Musharraf obviously overestimated his popularity,” said Raza Rumi, a political analyst. “He was delusional in thinking he could ride out the storm, and he underestimated the resolve of the judges.”

Pervez Musharraf is charged with the detention of 60 judges, which he ordered in 2007, including Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. He ordered that the Judges should be locked up in their home. The other case in which he is involved relates to lack of security for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who was shot dead. He is also facing charges for ordering the killing of Baluch nationalist leader in 2006.

Author: Aman JainAman is MBA (Finance) with an experience on both Marketing and Finance side. He has worked as a Risk Analyst for AIR Worldwide, and is currently leading VeRa FinServ, a Financial Research firm. Favorite pastimes include watching science fiction movies, reviewing tech gadgets, playing PC games and cricket. - Email him at amanjain@valuewalk.com